


Down the Line

by 0717wonu



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe -Modern Setting, Fluff, I really don't know how to tag, Kim Mingyu is Whipped, M/M, School Life, Strangers to Friends, Strangers to Lovers, That's it, Volleyball, i'm bad at tagging lol, mingyu is whipped for seungcheol
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:27:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25666663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0717wonu/pseuds/0717wonu
Summary: Seungcheol receives a bottle of Gatorade from an anonymous person who put it in his locker.Mingyu gets bonked in the head by a volleyball.
Relationships: Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups/Kim Mingyu, Hong Jisoo | Joshua/Yoon Jeonghan
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	Down the Line

**Author's Note:**

> warning although i do play volleyball, some info may be wrong so that's that

The monotonous sound of Seungcheol's alarm wakes him up from his slumber. The irritating shrill that his phone blasts forces him to sit up on his bed, his hair unkempt and his face puffy. After turning the alarm off, he takes several minutes, dipping in and out of the state of sleepiness before finally rubbing his eyes and turning his phone on. Fortunately, the phone says 6:21 AM, which means he didn't oversleep this time. Seungcheol shudders at the memory about that time where he overslept, which made him late for his first subject. He scoffs when he remembered that his professor basically snitched and reported his tardiness to the school's coach, which in turn gave him the wonderful punishment of 10 extra repetitions of suicide drills and made him shag the balls after practice.

See, Seungcheol is the captain and an opposite spiker of his school's volleyball team. If college wasn't hard enough, imagine having a 2 hour practice everyday on top of studying and academics. He has to keep his academics up AND win matches for his school. It's hard, yes, managing his time and the general fatigue after practicing, but it's also kind of fun for him because he gets to do the things he love: to study to become a kindergarten teacher (he likes kids okay?) and playing volleyball.

Seungcheol extracts himself from the covers, puts on his room slippers and wobbles out of his room, sleep is still evident in him. He turns on his coffee maker for his early morning coffee and scrolls around Twitter as he puts a bagel in a toaster for his breakfast. The machine dings after it pours the steaming hot coffee in his mug, and grabs his bagels after it pops out of the toaster. The black-haired man eats in silence, while he arranges the things he'll need for the day: his jersey, kinesiology tape, kneepads, pain relief spray, his laptop, and books all in his Adidas duffel bag. Afterwards, Seungcheol takes a cold brisk shower (he despises people who take a shower once a day: twice is the way to go!) to wake him up. When he's done showering, he does his morning skin care routine because he doesn't want wrinkles at the age of 32: he looks too good to have wrinkles so he's not gonna allow that.

His outfit for today consists of an oversized hoodie, paired with red jogging pants, and some white Adidas sneakers. Lastly, at 7:12 AM, after turning off the lights in his apartment, he checks if there are any plugs that are still plugged in, and when he sees there are none, he locks the door, puts in his earphones, and walks to the train station that'll lead him to his university campus.

* * *

The commute was uneventful, the trains weren't that crowded so he got to enjoy the beautiful view of the concrete walls in the subway while listening to music. Today, Seungcheol is listening to Rain on Me (in his defense the song is a bop and it's been stuck in his head since it's release),as he thinks it's a great song to motivate him today. He finally arrives at the campus, which is unusually empty but he doesn't mind it. A light breeze welcomes him and messes up his bangs a little bit. The raven-haired man runs a hand through his hair and wears the hood of his jacket while walking to his building.

He finally arrived in his building and is now in front of the dark blue lockers that line the entire hallway. The hallway is a bit desolate and quiet, although there are people passing by chatting with each other. Putting in the combination in the lock, the metal door swings open with an audible creak and he places all of his belongings in the locker with the exception of his laptop, textbooks, and pens. He closes the door, locks the padlock, and walks down the hall to the room where his first class is situated.

He opens the door and sees that there's not many people; it's almost 8:30 and there's only 15 of them scattered around the room which usually fits 40.

"That's weird," he quietly mutters to himself.

"Cheol we literally had one day for the weekend, of course people are not going to class," someone with a honey-like voice whispers behind his ear, a bit too close for comfort. Seungcheol yelps at practically leaps three feet in the air in shock.

It's just Jeonghan. The mischievous setter of the team. Absolutely gorgeous human being. Or devil? He's not sure.

"Jeonghan how many times do I have to tell you to stop pulling shit like this, Oh my God," he says to the blonde. In return Jeonghan simply giggles and slaps the doe-eyed man in the butt and finding a place to sit. The embarrassment of having fifteen pairs of eyes staring right at him is slowly sinking in, so he shyly looks away from Jeonghan and the eyes of everyone else in the room until someone accidentally bumps into him, almost toppling the both of them over, if not for Seungcheol's extremely fast reflexes.

"Woah man, are you alright?" he asks the person who bumped into him. The first thing Seungcheol realizes when he's looking at the man in front of him is wow he's tall but damn he's also clumsy. The taller picks himself up and attempts to regain composure, patting his clothes down and when he finally looks at the volleyball player, he starts to apologize profusely.

"Oh my God I am so sorry! Holy shit I hope I didn't do anything bad oh my God I'm literally sorry," the brown haired man with the golden skin and cute fangs stammers. He bows in front of Seungcheol and the latter finds it so endearing.

"Woah chill out I'm okay!" he reassures the taller. "I haven't seen you here. What's your name?"

"I...uhh...I'm M-Mingyu. Yeah I'm Mingyu. I-I'd love to chat but I have to go to the restroom. I'm so sorry bye," he replies before scurrying out the door. The door closes with a slow screech and finally locking into place. Seungcheol is left dumbfounded at this bizarre experience with a bizarre ~~but cute~~ man. The 14 people in the room decided that this little ordeal was not worth their time so they were back to rewriting notes, typing away on their phones, and minding their own business.

"Huh, that's weird," Seungcheol mutters to himself for the second time within 30 minutes. He takes a seat, plops his laptop & notebook on the desk as he prepares for his 8:30 class.

He lets out an weary sigh as he opens his Macbook. It's gonna be a long day today, and he knows it.

* * *

Oh a long day it was.

Seungcheol felt extremely drained after a day full of lectures that bored the living crap out of him. He almost fell asleep in a psychology lecture after his lunch break, during a surprise quiz, and while discussing about their thesis with his group mates. But now that classes are over, he's walking down the crowded hallway to get to his locker and grab the rest of his bag before going to practice. The crowd around him is swarming to leave the campus, with the exception of a handful of varsity students who are having their respective training today. After almost 10 minutes of hobbling in a packed corridor, he finally arrives at his locker. Fortunately for him, their building is finally free from students. Unfortunately for him, Jeonghan and his boyfriend, also the outside spiker of the team, Joshua are leaning against the locker doors beside his. The pair are known for their playful shenanigans in and off the court, and has known Seungcheol ever since they were seniors in high school. The three of them are also the eldest in the team, so they have a close bond with each other, although there are times that Jeonghan and Joshua gang up and pull these tiny pranks on Seungcheol. Either way, he still loves them. He internally rolls his eyes before sucking in a shaky breath to greet the duo.

"What are the two of my bestest friends doing at my locker!" Seungcheol says with a playful lilt in his voice and an overly sweet smile. The couple chuckles in return.

"You know, we're dropping by to ask how the best captain of this team is doing!" Joshua replies.

"I see that you dyed your hair blue huh," Seungcheol states while he rolling the knobs of his padlock. Finally undoing the lock, he swings the door open. "It looks so good on you I woul-" he continued before a bottle of lemon lime Gatorade rolls out the compartment and onto his feet. He stares at the drink in shock and confusion before bending over and picking it up, looking at the object in amazement. He turns to the two men standing beside him, who are also sporting a look of shock on their faces, a grin starting to form on each of their faces.

"Ah our little Seungcheolie has an admirer!" Jeonghan exclaims. The black-haired man huffs as he places the drink in his bag. "In our 4 years of friendship, I've never seen this happen to you! You're growing up!" he gleefully says as he puts the eldest in a headlock and rubs his scalp.

"You two I swear to God if this is one of your pranks I will not hesitate to crush both of your balls," he says while squirming under the blonde's hold. After a couple more seconds of wriggling, Jeonghan eventually let's go of him. Joshua lets out a laugh as he watches the two of his friends. Seungcheol glares at him, causing the blue-haired man to stop before clearing his throat.

Joshua's eyes bulge out as he raise his hands, exhibiting innocence. "Man, no need to be violent. But it's not us. I promise, I swear!"

Seungcheol narrows his eyes at the two of them, who are looking like scolded puppies. Maybe they are innocent, he thinks to himself. "Forget about it, let's go to the gymnasium. I don't want to be late." The couple nods in affirmation and they talk about the upcoming intramurals in their university and the new bar that just opened nearby. As the two chitchat with each other, Seungcheol can't bring himself to join the conversation as he is too busy thinking who on God's green earth would give him a bottle of Gatorade? For the entire time they traversed the distance between their building to the campus gymnasium, he was ruminating about this apparent secret Gatorade supplier. He's deep in his thoughts until Joshua decides to speak up when they enter the court.

"Huh our Cheollie's awfully quiet? Is he too busy thinking who his wittle admirer is?" Joshua cloyingly says as he pinches the former's cheek. The oldest of the trio swats his hands which results in the youngest feigning hurt,

"Well do you know who gave it to me?"

"Cheol, I promise you I don't know. If we knew me and Jeonghan would be laughing our asses off at you trying to find out who it was."

"I find it hard to believe you but go off I guess," he says before they enter the locker rooms and changing into their sports attire. He removes his jacket and the shirt underneath and putting on a Nike Dri-fit top. He strips his jogging pants and slips a basic basketball shorts on his legs. Only did he realize that he forgot to wear his kneepads after he put on his shoes.

"Jesus Christ, not again," he mutters to himself. After finally slipping on both of his kneepads, he stretches to warm his muscles up and and jogs out the locker rooms and into the court as soon as he finished. There he can see that their freshman libero, Chan, who's also the youngest on the team, is doing drills with the junior libero, Jihoon. He watches as the older libero makes Chan's life a little more painful by giving him balls that are next to impossible to defend. Knowing Jihoon, who's the definition of perfectionist, he's preparing the younger for after his senior year.

A glance to the other side of the net, he sees the two setters, Jeonghan and a sophomore named Minghao, practice different types of sets with their middle blockers Jun and Wonwoo, and the wing spikers Joshua and Vernon. Balls were hitting the court with pinpoint accuracy, the sound of it emanating around the court's entirety. He pauses for a moment, counting how many of the main roster players are present in the court. Seungcheol realizes that there's one person missing, so he starts to go to his captain mode and find the lost player. As he was about to approach Chan, who usually arrives the earliest, he hears the doors of the gym slam open.

Lo and behold, there stood Kwon Soonyoung, a junior majoring in engineering and the rowdy opposite of the team, donning a headband and shorts with tiger stripes printed on them. He takes a couple of steps forward before making his grand entrance-slash-speech.

"Everyone! The flaming tiger of this team has arrived! Let the passion running through our veins fuel us today!" Soonyoung declared with enthusiasm in his voice. Everyone stood still, the court clouded with silence and awkwardness, while staring at the newcomer. The stillness inside was about to hit the ten second mark until Chan decided to clap slowly and look at the tiger-clad man in awe.

"Yah, Soonyoung-hyung is so awesome," he says before getting a smack to the back of the head from Jihoon. "Ow!"

"Soonyoung get your ass in here!" The captain barks at him. The aura in the room shifts back to determination as the players resume their activities. Soonyoung bashfully walks to the benches before placing his bag and jogging to the court. Seungcheol grabs a ball before going into the a line with Joshua. The latter throws a ball upwards in a direction towards Minghao, to which Minghao sets it at a low and a fast pace towards the attacker. While the ball was about to arrive at Minghao's hands, the spiker starts his approach and jumping shortly after the setter sends the ball to the left side of the court. Joshua's hand makes a loud, thunderous sound when it makes contact. The ball is sent far across and deep into the court. The blue-haired attacker lands on both of his feet, clear from the net and the center line.

The captain spins the ball on his left pointer finger and throws the ball at his setter. Seungcheol has his gaze locked on the ball, approaching his favorite spot and jumping upwards. Swinging his hips and his arms, his right hand makes contact with the ball as he sends it down the line. The ball hits the floor and bounces off. Little did Seungcheol now that after the ball ricocheted off the floor, it hit someone in the head.

After landing on the urethane floor, he finds out that, once again, the space is silent. Only this time, the silence wasn't induced by a tiger-wannabe entering the building. A tall and lanky student was peacefully walking to the side of the court to retrieve a tote bag full of rolled up cartolinas when a ball decided to hit him on the head.

Who was the tall and lanky man in question?

It was Mingyu, of course. At the wrong place, and the wrong time. Again.

"Oh shit!" Seungcheol exclaims before ducking underneath the net, rushing to Mingyu's aid. The ball, even though most of it's force was lessened after hitting the floor, was strong enough to knock the taller to his butt, causing him to drop the aforementioned tote bag and its contents. Squatting down to his level, it is evident that Mingyu is in pain. Of course, he got hit by a ball that's going 50-60 miles per hour, that's gonna hurt.

Seungcheol brushes the stray bangs on the younger's face aside. "Mingyu, are you okay?" The brunette's face is contorted, his eyes shut in pain. Mingyu sits up and slowly opens his eyes, the light of the court is a bit too much for him, so he squints. It takes several moments for his eyes to adjust to the light, and after his vision clears up, there's another thing that's bright that is also in front of him.

He sees a curly haired player named Choi Seungcheol, sporting a gummy smile. He hears angels singing around him as the light behind him ever so softly illuminates the outline of his fluffy hair. Seungcheol leans into him, his cherry lips closing in on his. It's too good to be real, Mingyu thinks. He's enjoying it all until he's shaken by someone from behind.

"Earth to Mingyu are you here with me?" a deep voice, probably from his room mate Wonwoo, pulls him out of a trance-like state. Mingyu shakes his head and it registers in Mingyu's brain that the ball must've hit him so good that he fantasized about that with Seungcheol (now that he's thinking about it, he should get hit by stray balls more often). He shivers and stands up, a bit too quickly because he staggers for a little bit before the former catches him. Again. For the second time this day.

"Jesus Christ are you okay? You're like a clumsy magnet!" Seungcheol chuckles nervously. "Let me bring you to the clinic, we don't want you to get a concussion." Mingyu's eyes widen and as he was about to decline and say he was okay, the captain of the team stops him in his tracks. "No, you're going to the clinic, Mingyu. No buts. Now, lean on me."

Seungcheol slings Mingyu's arms over his broad shoulders as they both walk (more like waddle, as Mingyu is still feeling woozy after everything) towards the clinic, which was conveniently situated beside the bleachers by the entrance. Jeonghan runs up to him to ask about the situation.

"Han, if I don't arrive by the time Coach Kim gets here, tell him I'm at the clinic with a student who got hit by a ball. While I'm gone, I'm putting you in charge. Please stop Jihoon if you see him trying to kill Chan."

"You got it, Captain Cheol."

* * *

Mingyu wakes up in a green, padded bed. He sits up and hears two hushed voices in a conversation. The creaking of the bed stops the dialogue and he sees Seungcheol and Wonwoo come out the corner.

Wonwoo, with the cursed tote bag slung over his shoulder, rushes to him and softly pats his head. "How are you feeling, bud?".

"My head hurts but it's not that bad. How long was I out hyung?"

"For 10 minutes."

Seungcheol butts in. "Mingyu, I am so sorry for that incident. I should've been more careful." He bows sincerely.

"No hyung, I'm the one who should be sorry for entering during your practice! It was very stupid on my part."

The athlete was about to speak before Wonwoo cuts him off. "Yeah, you both a mistake let it go. I'm not in the mood for a 'no you?' scenario. Anyways, Seungcheol, thank you for accompanying us. I mean it."

"Oh, it's nothing," Seungcheol replies. The door opens, signifying that the nurse has entered. "Ah, Nurse Yoo, good afternoon! Will Mingyu require hospitalization?"

"Good afternoon too, Seungcheol, fortunately Mingyu here only has a first grade concussion, nothing bad. He just needs to rest for two days and he'll be okay. As for you Mingyu, I recommend that you take acetaminophen for headache pain and bed rest." Nurse Yoo rummages in her drawer and pulls out a clipboard. "Just sign here so I can track this incident and send you home."

Mingyu grabs the clipboard and signs. He thanks Nurse Yoo as Wonwoo helps him stand up. Unlike before, Mingyu's actually okay, with the exception of a dull throbbing pain. Seungcheol escorts the roommates out the clinic.

"Seungcheol, thank you so much and I'm sorry for cutting your practice short." Mingyu smiles at him.

"So see you around I guess? Hopefully not in a hazardous environment," Seungcheol jokes. "Wonwoo, take care of this big puppy!"

Mingyu freezes at the nickname. He was about to say something before Wonwoo laughs and slings an arm over Mingyu. "Yes hyung. Take care!" He drags an astonished Mingyu out the gymnasium.

Watching the two figures grow smaller in the distance, Seungcheol heads back in to continue with his training.

* * *

Seungcheol places his bag down beside his bed as he prepares to take a shower. While showering, he reflects on everything that happened to him today, particularly his unusual run-ins with Mingyu. He shakes off the thoughts in his head before turning the shower off & wrapping a towel around his waist. He stares at himself while he was brushing his teeth as his mind is in a different place. He puts on a loose shirt and a pair of red baggy shorts before plopping himself down on his bed, his body feeling like a mushy sack of lactic acid. He was slowly drifting into sleep until he remembered the lemon lime-flavored Gatorade given by a mystery Gatorade supplier.

The thought makes him sit up immediately and retrieve it from the depths of his gym bag. He didn't even realize that he was parched until he saw the enticing and unnatural yellow-green color of the drink so he twists open the cap (fortunately for him, the bottle was still sealed) and basically drinks the entire thing in three gulps. He smiles at the bottle, feeling giddy at the thought of someone caring about him that they gave him a bottle of Gatorade. He shoots the bottle in the trash can at the corner of the room.

"Three points," he whispers to himself when the bottle made it in the trash can.

He's instantly knocked out the moment he places his head again on his pillow. He sleeps soundly, dreaming about a brown haired boy with his canines evident when he smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm kinda bad at writing so here
> 
> if you see me not updating the first fic, no you didn't <3 also why did i write this when i only have 11 days left before school starts uhhh.... maybe i'll update in three days? three months? who knows
> 
> please comment suggestions/constructive criticisms!!!!!!! please stay safe everyone


End file.
